Exodus 8:16-24; Ephesians 5:1-9; St Luke 11:14-28
Profession of Faith Danny and Anne Strauser
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
This is the finger of God. That’s what Pharaoh’s magicians said. They didn’t say it after the first plague, when God turned all the water in Egypt into blood. They didn’t say it after the second plague, when God filled their bedrooms with frogs. But after the third plague, when gnats adhered themselves to man and beast, they couldn’t help but say it, This is the finger of God. The Finger of Judgment. The Finger that pressed down on their deities and dwarfed their might. The Finger that meant doom for Pharaoh and his country.
Then God struck again. The forth plague was flies. Swarms of big flies on all the Egyptians. Swarms of flies ruining the land. It was doom and judgment for the Egyptians, mockery of their gods. But not for those Hebrew slaves. They shared in the first three plagues, but not in the fourth and following ones. Ruinous flies over all the Egyptians, yes. But on the Hebrews in the land of Goshen, no. No flies, no doom, no judgment. The Lord God set His people apart. He made a division between them and the Egyptians.
The next time we hear the term Finger of God in the Scriptures is the finger of God etching out the Ten Commandments and giving them to Moses (Ex 31:18). The Finger of God carving out what the lives of His people were to look like. They were to love God above all things, but instead, they considered Him a nuisance. They were to love and serve those around them, but they considered even their family a bother. The Finger of God would not mean doom even for them.
And that good, right, and salutary Law of God still preaches doom to hard hearts. Hearts like ours. We are called to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, but we don’t. Our own national “plague” is evidence of that. Do we fear God above all things? Or do we fear interaction with other people and Coronavirus? Do we love God above all things? Or do we love that Walgreens still has Clorox wipes? Do we trust Him above all things? Or do we trust in hand sanitizer and latex gloves?
God’s good Law that He etched out with His finger was supposed to be a description of us, His people, to fear and love Him above all things and love our neighbors as ourselves. Instead it is like a finger in our face, accusing us, showing us that we are naturally sinful, dead and doomed. Like it was for the Hebrews living in Goshen, who were afflicted with the first three plague, so it is for us Christians living here and around the world, this is an opportunity to repent. Whether it is God’s judgment or His mercy, the Christian life of faith and love is always marked by repentance.
In the Old Testament the Finger of God was an expression that meant doom and judgment. Yet despite our lawbreaking, our lack of fear, love, and trust in God above all things, doom will not strike you. And the reason is because there came a time in history when the Finger of God was not only an expression. The Finger of God could actually be seen. The ten fingers of God could actually be seen attached to the palm of a Man. The Man Jesus who had all the power of God in those fingers. He could have flicked away the disobedient the way you flick away a bothersome gnat. He could have justly wrapped those fingers around our throats, shaken us, and said, “Why do you oppose Me and My ways?” He could have pointed that finger at us as one deserving God’s anger.
Instead, He pointed His finger at Himself and said, “I’m the guilty One.” He let others wags their fingers in His face, falsely accusing Him. Saying He was in league with the Devil. Others who pointed their fingers at Him and said, “There’s that Lawbreaker. Crucify Him.” “There’s the Man we hate, condemn Him.” And He let them. He set aside the power of those incarnate fingers of God and wrapped them around the beam of a Cross as He bore the Law’s punishment, a punishment He didn’t deserve.
In today’s Gospel we see the power of those Fingers. He’s driving out the Strong Man, Satan. For Christ Jesus is the Stronger One. This Lent Jesus comes battling Satan. Face to face in the wilderness. In the demonic possession of a Canaanite woman’s daughter. Now in the mute man. Satan is real. And he loves to deceive us and mislead us into false belief and despair. He rejoices over epidemics and national emergencies. He cheers over things that take away our true fear, love, and trust in God.
But the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8). He comes casting out demons because He came to help man by striking and overcoming Satan and his kingdom. He came to cast away your sins. To drive them far out of God’s presence, never to be remembered. That’s what drove Him to the Cross. Drove Him to fulfill what His own fingers wrote on Mt Sinai because you haven’t.
The Ten Commandments which accuse and condemn us, actually describe Jesus perfectly. Here is perfect love. A love that fears His Father and loves Him entirely, trusting Him in every circumstance. Here’s a love that loves His neighbor completely. So completely that He has His powerful, holy fingers stretched out so that His hands can be nailed through as the worst plague ever known to man - your sin - attacked His holy flesh.
There at the Crucifix God was making a division between Jesus and the rest of the world. He was declared the Sinner so that the world might be absolved and declared righteous. The sins of the world covered Him like gnats on skin. Your disobedience, sexual immorality, impurity and covetousness, all attacked Him like a swarm of flies that can’t be shooed away. And then He was struck down. The way the firstborn of Egypt were struck down in the tenth and final plague.
But He was also the Firstborn of the dead, raised, so that He could show the fingers and hands that were the source of man’s victory over death and the grave.
My eyes are ever toward the Lord for He will pluck my feet out of the net, you sang in the introit. When your eyes are toward the Lord of your life and God of your salvation, that means your looking at His fingers, fingers that the Lord Jesus has set apart. His own, which are raised in holy prayer for you. And the fingers of your Pastor, whom He has sent in His stead and by His command. Fingers that poured water over you in the strong name of the Trinity and baptized you and darkness became Light.
Fingers that are held up as a sign of the Office which he holds by Christ’s command to forgive all your sins, to drive away the demon snares of sin, the vice that gives temptation power, and the natural lusts that war within.
Fingers that carry the Body and Blood of Christ to you that bestow His forgiveness and life. Even now, especially now, in the face of fear over mortal illness, we must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that grants salvation and comfort. It is the Medicine of Immortality. It will cure you and give you life both in soul and body. For where the soul has recovered, the body is also relieved. There is no poison in the cup which your Divine Physician gives.
See the finger of your Pastor which directs you away from dwelling on your sinful heart, or frustrated emotions, to the heart of your merciful Savior, Jesus Christ, and His favor toward you. He lived for you. Died for you. Was raised for you. He still stands against any swarms of demons or unclean spirits or hostile foes that might try to reclaim you.
He is raised to be with His Church forever. Raised to set His Church apart, just as He once did for the land of Goshen that she may be a Light to the nations, a people fervent in prayer for the sick and all those in need, carrying out our Christian duty toward our neighbors, even while you preserve your own life as a gift of God. Doing everything possible to counteract death and illness by medicine, avoiding places and persons infected, but at all times living with a fervent spirit and joyful hope that no doom, no judgment, no wrath shall befall you who flee for refuge in Christ Jesus.
In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Profession of Faith Danny and Anne Strauser
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
This is the finger of God. That’s what Pharaoh’s magicians said. They didn’t say it after the first plague, when God turned all the water in Egypt into blood. They didn’t say it after the second plague, when God filled their bedrooms with frogs. But after the third plague, when gnats adhered themselves to man and beast, they couldn’t help but say it, This is the finger of God. The Finger of Judgment. The Finger that pressed down on their deities and dwarfed their might. The Finger that meant doom for Pharaoh and his country.
Then God struck again. The forth plague was flies. Swarms of big flies on all the Egyptians. Swarms of flies ruining the land. It was doom and judgment for the Egyptians, mockery of their gods. But not for those Hebrew slaves. They shared in the first three plagues, but not in the fourth and following ones. Ruinous flies over all the Egyptians, yes. But on the Hebrews in the land of Goshen, no. No flies, no doom, no judgment. The Lord God set His people apart. He made a division between them and the Egyptians.
The next time we hear the term Finger of God in the Scriptures is the finger of God etching out the Ten Commandments and giving them to Moses (Ex 31:18). The Finger of God carving out what the lives of His people were to look like. They were to love God above all things, but instead, they considered Him a nuisance. They were to love and serve those around them, but they considered even their family a bother. The Finger of God would not mean doom even for them.
And that good, right, and salutary Law of God still preaches doom to hard hearts. Hearts like ours. We are called to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, but we don’t. Our own national “plague” is evidence of that. Do we fear God above all things? Or do we fear interaction with other people and Coronavirus? Do we love God above all things? Or do we love that Walgreens still has Clorox wipes? Do we trust Him above all things? Or do we trust in hand sanitizer and latex gloves?
God’s good Law that He etched out with His finger was supposed to be a description of us, His people, to fear and love Him above all things and love our neighbors as ourselves. Instead it is like a finger in our face, accusing us, showing us that we are naturally sinful, dead and doomed. Like it was for the Hebrews living in Goshen, who were afflicted with the first three plague, so it is for us Christians living here and around the world, this is an opportunity to repent. Whether it is God’s judgment or His mercy, the Christian life of faith and love is always marked by repentance.
In the Old Testament the Finger of God was an expression that meant doom and judgment. Yet despite our lawbreaking, our lack of fear, love, and trust in God above all things, doom will not strike you. And the reason is because there came a time in history when the Finger of God was not only an expression. The Finger of God could actually be seen. The ten fingers of God could actually be seen attached to the palm of a Man. The Man Jesus who had all the power of God in those fingers. He could have flicked away the disobedient the way you flick away a bothersome gnat. He could have justly wrapped those fingers around our throats, shaken us, and said, “Why do you oppose Me and My ways?” He could have pointed that finger at us as one deserving God’s anger.
Instead, He pointed His finger at Himself and said, “I’m the guilty One.” He let others wags their fingers in His face, falsely accusing Him. Saying He was in league with the Devil. Others who pointed their fingers at Him and said, “There’s that Lawbreaker. Crucify Him.” “There’s the Man we hate, condemn Him.” And He let them. He set aside the power of those incarnate fingers of God and wrapped them around the beam of a Cross as He bore the Law’s punishment, a punishment He didn’t deserve.
In today’s Gospel we see the power of those Fingers. He’s driving out the Strong Man, Satan. For Christ Jesus is the Stronger One. This Lent Jesus comes battling Satan. Face to face in the wilderness. In the demonic possession of a Canaanite woman’s daughter. Now in the mute man. Satan is real. And he loves to deceive us and mislead us into false belief and despair. He rejoices over epidemics and national emergencies. He cheers over things that take away our true fear, love, and trust in God.
But the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8). He comes casting out demons because He came to help man by striking and overcoming Satan and his kingdom. He came to cast away your sins. To drive them far out of God’s presence, never to be remembered. That’s what drove Him to the Cross. Drove Him to fulfill what His own fingers wrote on Mt Sinai because you haven’t.
The Ten Commandments which accuse and condemn us, actually describe Jesus perfectly. Here is perfect love. A love that fears His Father and loves Him entirely, trusting Him in every circumstance. Here’s a love that loves His neighbor completely. So completely that He has His powerful, holy fingers stretched out so that His hands can be nailed through as the worst plague ever known to man - your sin - attacked His holy flesh.
There at the Crucifix God was making a division between Jesus and the rest of the world. He was declared the Sinner so that the world might be absolved and declared righteous. The sins of the world covered Him like gnats on skin. Your disobedience, sexual immorality, impurity and covetousness, all attacked Him like a swarm of flies that can’t be shooed away. And then He was struck down. The way the firstborn of Egypt were struck down in the tenth and final plague.
But He was also the Firstborn of the dead, raised, so that He could show the fingers and hands that were the source of man’s victory over death and the grave.
My eyes are ever toward the Lord for He will pluck my feet out of the net, you sang in the introit. When your eyes are toward the Lord of your life and God of your salvation, that means your looking at His fingers, fingers that the Lord Jesus has set apart. His own, which are raised in holy prayer for you. And the fingers of your Pastor, whom He has sent in His stead and by His command. Fingers that poured water over you in the strong name of the Trinity and baptized you and darkness became Light.
Fingers that are held up as a sign of the Office which he holds by Christ’s command to forgive all your sins, to drive away the demon snares of sin, the vice that gives temptation power, and the natural lusts that war within.
Fingers that carry the Body and Blood of Christ to you that bestow His forgiveness and life. Even now, especially now, in the face of fear over mortal illness, we must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that grants salvation and comfort. It is the Medicine of Immortality. It will cure you and give you life both in soul and body. For where the soul has recovered, the body is also relieved. There is no poison in the cup which your Divine Physician gives.
See the finger of your Pastor which directs you away from dwelling on your sinful heart, or frustrated emotions, to the heart of your merciful Savior, Jesus Christ, and His favor toward you. He lived for you. Died for you. Was raised for you. He still stands against any swarms of demons or unclean spirits or hostile foes that might try to reclaim you.
He is raised to be with His Church forever. Raised to set His Church apart, just as He once did for the land of Goshen that she may be a Light to the nations, a people fervent in prayer for the sick and all those in need, carrying out our Christian duty toward our neighbors, even while you preserve your own life as a gift of God. Doing everything possible to counteract death and illness by medicine, avoiding places and persons infected, but at all times living with a fervent spirit and joyful hope that no doom, no judgment, no wrath shall befall you who flee for refuge in Christ Jesus.
In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
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